A month in a page and random extras

*Ducks under the flying mouldy fruit* Sorry! *tries not to slip on a banana peel* Truly I am sorry! *Dives into cover and peeps out from under it* Close to a month... whoops...

I could give you excuses but they are boring to both type and read so on with what I have been doing for the past... yer...

The week I left you on we pretty much built every day. The money finally came through for the roof of Blessed Word of Life Church that we are linked with and in which we conduct children’s club every Friday. So basically we were covered in mud (especially if someone chucks you into a hole full of the stuff), brick dust and/or sand for the majority of it. 

That Friday we taught the kids at that very Church the story of Pentecost with glow sticks representing the Holy Spirit.... It did kind of work.

That Saturday I WAS NOT ILL with random chest pains that, we think now, may have been caused by me straining something during the building.

The following week we had a very special birthday as Anna was 22, which she was banned from saying was too old, and on Monday we went out to celebrate. At LT we soaked her and had cake as well as a time of fellowship with those guys before heading off to the Ugandan version of Dominoes (which If you remember I dubbed Domandas, even though it doesn’t run of the tongue as well as Ugandos.) It was also Mumma Carol’s (who was a awesome Lady who had been staying with us for a while) last night in country so it was a bit bitter-sweet. 

It was also the week that I agreed on Monday to learn The Life house Skit (If you don’t know what I mean see the end) to perform on Sunday. Now as a Teenage Christian that is interested in dance, that one in particular (or that jump in particular) is something I did want to at least try and luckily for me it is actually quite simple.

Tuesday saw me being bullied into going to the hospital because apparently chest pains aren’t a good thing. After telling the Doctor it hurt when I laughed he proceeded to make me laugh most of the consultation (he was British and had a very dry sense of humour.) At first he said it was because I was taking Doxicclin, anti-malaria tablets, he changed his mind and said it could be several things. A few tests were done he said I was the proud owner of two tropical diseases but he didn’t think either of them where causing the chest pain. Good.

Was told I wasn’t allowed to do building so for the rest of the week I was stubborn and built.

Friday we taught the children at FBC the story of ‘The Lost Sheep.’

Sunday Anna and I where performing in both services at Church (the one in Luganda and the one in English) and so treated ourselves to a Javas (a western style restaurant) breakfast.  

Week 3 was the start of the Constant Rehearsals all leading up to our Concert which took place on the 11^th of May. It was this week that we also started up Community Outreach again. This is a brilliant ministry and I am so thankful to be back doing it. That week the story at FBC was ‘The Parable of the Sower.’

The concert was a big thing in our books as it was big publicity and a great way of showing just how far the dance group had come. We had been rehearsing for it, publicising it, generally getting ready for it for a good long time and the day finally came. Once again we performed in both services in the morning before sorting everything and decorating. People started arriving at around 4 and the Church was packed when we started at twenty to five. I must admit I will never forget the roar of the crowd when we were announced. Anyway if I stay on this topic I could go on about it for an age.

And finally this week was rather a stop and start one. I have done rather a lot just it has been quite bitty. We have been lesson planning for RMC, starting next week, and making more posters for their wooden panelled walls. Got attacked be children at community outreach, I really love that ministry, and covered Bartimaeus being healed by Jesus in kids club. 

So that’s just about it I think... a month of my life in a page, that’s slightly weird.

The Life House Skit is a dance which is performed to ‘Everything’ by Life house and if you have not watched it I would strongly advise you to do so. If you type it into YouTube there are many different versions but they are all along the same awesome theme. I will also put the link of the LT guys doing the same dance on here so if you want to watch me fail at acting you are welcome to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtxtOIWEdLA&feature=youtu.be

 Here are some more links, these ones to videos taken at our concert if you are interested. If you are not please just click on them because then I will get another view on the Youtube account I have created for them and you don’t have to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocp60-FkAac&list=PLiMAZpgGxnl02G4HGFMx43bQjwMlB_2Q6

Thank you all so much for the constant prayer support, especially with the issues of my health these last few weeks. A quick shout out to Flo who was 18 this week and of course Anna who was 22, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

With a month and a half left of smile work and 2 and a bit left of my time in Uganda I have start to think more and more of leaving here, and I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. I do, however feel that God as really challenged me in the time I have spent here and what I have learned will help me to do his will, not only now but also in the future with whatever plan he has for me.

Dance and Aid

Two weeks, not too bad especially as I’ve written two more chapters of my fanfic, that’s got to be worth something right... Anywho...

So the week starting the 7^th was a slow one in which not much happened. We are really enjoying school now, and I am continuing with one on one sessions with the children. It is really nice to see their progress and this week one of the kids (who is really bright) managed to read one of my books, all the way through. It was awesome to see the joy in his face when he completed it. On the Thursday I went to the hospital, just to make sure everything was ok, which it was. After that we took a little, detour. By this I mean we got on a wrong taxi and ended up doing a round trip to where we started. Great to see more of Kampala though.

On Friday we tried, and I think managed, to tackle the crucifixion. Explaining something so big to such little children is a strange thing, but I pray we succeeded.

Saturday we visited a friend’s house, Lawrence’s, for a party. It was really nice just hanging out with friends, dancing and eating a ridiculous amount of food (or more like trying too.) Palm Sunday was almost like a calm before the storm, mainly because although Sunday was chilled, the following week was not.

The whole of Monday we spent dancing. We had been asked to choreograph a dance for the Easter service that was being held that Friday, and so most of Monday was spent making up a dance and then teaching it in the evening.

Tuesday was the last day of school before RMC broke off for Easter and so we just went over the phonics we had taught them again. It was great seeing that the had learned so much in the short time we had been there. The evening was once again filled with teaching the LT guys the new routine.

We had been looking forward to Wednesday all week because it was the day that the children from RMC where coming to the house to receive aid. They were packed into two taxis on the way here and where so excited! We played a few games with them as we were still sorting things out but after that we managed to give them all shoes, hats, soap and school supplies including notebooks pens and colouring sheets. We also managed to find a lot of teaching supplies that we were able to give to the teachers. We loaded them all back onto the taxi and sent them home with large grins on their faces, it was adorably cute. We headed off to youth fellowship after that because there was a rehearsal after wards. It was nice to hear a talk that wasn’t directed at adults for a change.

Building! On Thursday morning we where given the task to carry a load f sand and stone from one place to another. It was actually quite nice doing some physical work for a change. I got covered in mud, but that was because the end on the building seemed to become a mud fight and I ended up in a hole half filled with wet mud. Great fun, and I’m not being sarcastic. After a very quick turnaround we headed to our last rehearsal before the performance. 

Friday’s kids club topic was the resurrection and it was an easier story to tell for some reason. It was really nice to hear that the kids had heard it before and that they understood just what Jesus did for them. Straight afterwards we went to church where me, Anna and Grace performed the dance that we had been worrying about since the start of the week, it was kind of our baby by this point – figuratively speaking. It went well, a few mishaps ere and there but nothing that wasn’t expected from a dance choreographed and learned in 4 days. We felt a lot of achievement at the end of it.

These last few days, because it has been Easter have been very slow and it’s really nice because three of us especially where very tiered after this week.

So that’s what’s been happening... Please continue to pray for health out here.

Oh and Happy Easter!

3 in 1

I do realise that I have three weeks of my time here to update you on so I’m going to try and make it nice and succinct.

The week following Kisaake we did a lot of preparation work for two of the trusties from Smile who came on the 25th.

Highlights: On Monday it was a great encouragement no to see a women called Constance who had been there since the ministry started. Having a rest day to recover emotionally and physically from mission, which I used pretty well (eating the remainder of my chocolate).

Finishing the paper work that we had started to get attached to; It is a strange thing, to see a name on a piece of paper so many times you feel like you know them.

Teaching the children at Blessed Word about Zaccaeus – one of my favourites for obvious reasons (it involves tree climbing.)

Sunday. This was because on Sunday the 23^rd of March it was Grace’s birthday (one of the other gapers) and she decided to have a barbeque and a joint party with Susie. It was great fun, even though socialising with people I don’t know very well is a strange thing for me. We had a laugh, good food and some interesting, seemingly on-sided, water fights. It was also lovely as somebody (who tried to stay anonymous) had brought a big cake and said I should share it because my birthday had been reasonably close as well. Unfortunately this back fired on me as it meant that I also got another birthday soaking. That brings the total up to four.

The next week I joined the others going back to Ruth Mother Care on Wednesday after being confined to a sick bed on Tuesday. Using my knew found knowledge that I like teaching children one on one, I taught a little girl maths after realising she wasn’t getting it at all. We also got a very clear picture of what we want to do at that school, so in all, a good day.

On Friday it was my first time in a long time back at FBC. It was on Palm Sunday and it was really nice getting the children to wave leaves they had picked. It was great to be back there, especially as we found out soon after that we will be stopping community outreach for other projects which means we won’t be going to that community as much as we would like to.

Saturday was really fun as, I finally did something I have been wanting to do for a while:- look around the shops of Kampala. We had walked the streets before but not actually with the intention of shopping or looking in anywhere. Me, Nic and Jon had a great time searching the DVD shops and having glimpses of others... Then, after heading off to church where I started teaching a man called Paul chess and getting picked up, we headed towards a place called Café Javas. This was because we had been invited out by the trusties, Jo and Graham, for a English style meal. This might sound bad but it was nice, talking to some English people and eating English food.

The third week was still not a full one for me as on Thursday I found myself once more confined to the house and this isolation continued until Saturday. However on Tuesday and Wednesday, being our fourth and fifth time there, we really got into our stride and we are now taking all the children out one by one and concentrating on their reading skills. We are doing this because their exams are in English even though it isn’t their first language. Oh and we taught them ‘what’s the time Mr Wolf’ which amuses me as my first memory is playing that on my 4^th birthday party with my dad playing the wolf.

On Saturday I had a very interesting experience of being able to attend a Ugandan Sports Day. It was lovely to see the little children (and ‘little’ they where as the children were from the age of 3 to 6) be encourage to participate and not ridiculed for coming last or for tripping over, or running in the wrong lane. Frankly it was adorable.

That pretty much sums it up. Please pray for health in general out here, as we’ve had many experiences with it being poor in recent weeks, with trips to the hospital for two of us gapers and one of my close friends at church. Thank you :D

It is so strange that we are now 2/3rds of the was our smile work out here and it only seems to be speeding up.

Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre

On the week starting the 10^th we headed off, after morning devotions, to a place in the village called Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre. We would be there for a week and so were pretty squished with our luggage and aid in the small hire car we had hired for this purpose. As we drove up we were met with the sight of a scattering of houses and mud huts, and then pulled up into a cute looking building that we were setting up camp in. And ‘set up camp’ we did as finding a way of hanging our mosquito nets was the first challenge we came to in this place. The others were; fetching water from a borehole a good 500 metres away, having a mini barbeque without the meat, i.e. we cooked on a charcoal stove, and cutting up vegetables with a pen knife. We were feeling ready and excited for the next day as we went to bed, very early because of the lack of light around. 

Waking reasonably early, we made our way to the school that one of the volunteers, Charles, works at. After bread and tea, of course. I was really looking forward to this because the school incorporates both hearing and deaf children as well as the disabled. So I was eager to put my Level 1 BSL course to use. When we where arrived we were warmly welcomed. I was introduced to the sign language teacher, Sarah, who was born deaf. Over the cores of the next few hours I got to learn a strange but brilliant variation of BSL and ASL with their own stamp on it. For those who know a bit about sign language I will give an example, they used the ASL alphabet but when it came to certain words (for example – boyfriend) they used the BSL sign which is based off its own. To make it even more complicated they used neither the ASL nor BSL way of greeting and also had a different sign for ‘name’. Anyhow, it was all very interesting and was great fun watching a sign language lesson after lunch. Whilst we where there, we also gave out aid which included pencils, pens, toys, shoes and school packs. This was really rewarding but also hard, giving out shoes to children who don’t have any but about 1 in 3 children at the school don’t have any, and we couldn’t give them to everybody.

The next day was Susie Boxhall’s 19^th birthday and most likely one that she will never forget as today we would be visiting disabled children in the community. Our first step was to see a boy of 12 called Kato who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. This poor kid had gotten into the habit of biting his hand when he was agitated or hungry, which because he was left for hours on end as his mother had to work, this was quite a lot. He had, in fact, paralysed his hand through biting it hard and for a long time. This meant that he was unable to feed himself which made it even harder for the mother to care for him. Since we have visited Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre have managed to provide this little boy with a wheelchair making it a lot easier for his mother to take him places and hopefully he won’t be stuck inside for that long now. After making sure he had something to eat and giving him a hat and a top that Grace had been donated we went to the next home we were to visit. 

 

This was one of a boy called Abdul, he was so tiny and sick because he hadn’t eaten anything solid in two weeks. The mother was trying, desperately, but everything that went down came up again a little later, he had had malaria and during his treatment at hospital, been fed through a tube that they think this may have caused some damage explaining the reason for the problem now. We gave the family some baby porridge (donated by Francesca Over) and told them to make it milkier to begin with. It was scary because we were unsure whether or not he with last the night but, thank God, he next day we hear that he had kept the porridge down. Please pray that he will regain his strength and that the family will be able to pay to take him back to the hospital. 

The next little boy was called Kadu, he had a case of hydrocephalus but in all was a very happy child who laughed a lot. We did a bit of therapy with him as he needs to learn how to sit without toppling over. I gave him one of Evas bracelets. Finally we went to a house that was much better in size and furnishings then the others we had seen, here was another little boy called Abdul also with hydrocephalus. He was a new ‘customer’ and so we were asking about his treatment, etc. We were allowed to pray with the mother and child, which was such a blessing as we found out later that this was a home of a witch doctor. 

After these home visits, as a treat for Susies birthday, we went to some waterfalls which were located nearby. By the end of this trip we were all extremely socked as, not only did we get into a little water fight after soaking Suse, it also decided to rain on us. African rain.

 Thursday was a drop in day for the centre we were staying at so, after a clean we invited several people who came in for therapy or to seek advice. There was one boy, Stuart, who had cerebral palsy whose head was ‘stuck’ in a certain position so the therapy I was involved with was focused on moving it slowly. There was also a Muslim girl who came in after her hand had been paralysed through malaria. It was really interesting to see how they went about treating these people.

We were back at the school, Mt Zion, the next day and this time I was in P3 (year 3) with three deaf students, helping them out as much as I could. I also went through the alphabet with a little boy who was still learning sign. I found that really fun and that experience as well as a few recently have made me realise that teaching one on one is so much more rewarding (in my view) and less stressful. After break they had elections for prefects and it was great seeing children getting involved with democracy considering the way Uganda’s government works. 

We left early morning on the Saturday and so were only there for 5 days and had activities on 4 of those. During this time, however, I remembered my passion for Sign Language and have decided that in at least one stage of my life I want to work with or for the disabled. God has opened my eyes this week. It isn’t like I didn’t know there were children out their like Abdul and Kato or I was surprised that there were, it is more that it has been put on my heart more then I had thought it would. God has been awesome in what he has shown and given me and I’m sure he will build on this knowledge in the coming weeks, months and years.

Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre are doing great work, if you would like to donate, you can talk to them through their FB page or talk to me and I can put you in touch.